Big Bright Driving Lights

[nfpgasmask]

OK, so I have been thinking about some driving lights. Something big and bright to illuminate a dirt road in the middle of the night.

I am thinking I want to mount lights on the front of my roof basket. Does anyone have any ideas/examples/pictures/tips etc?

Also, what is the easiest way to accomplish this? I would like to do something removable....or is that really not possible?

Thanks - Bart

[TEN36VX]

What kind of rack do you have?
Yakama makes a light mount bracket for thier loadwarrior & megawarrior baskets. That's about as easy as it gets.

[etlsport]

hey bart i made a mount for lights on the coleman basket... but now i have a loadwarrior that it doesnt quite fit on.. i never perfected the mounting of it though, ended up using zip ties lol, but they worked so i guess i cant laugh too much, anyway if u want it say 15 bucks shipped?(not incl. lights of course) it sits up at the front of the basket justs behind the fairing and holds 4 lights

the biggest problem i ran into mounting it was it had a tendency to roll forward, but i figured a threaded rod that ran down to the bottom of the basket would hold it just fine, i even got the clamps for the bottom of the basket ill throw in if i can find em

i got my lights from summit racing, they are 100w halogen using an h3 or h4 bulb i forget.. pretty sure h3.. theyre nice though, come with a cage and all, like 70 bucks a pair i beleive

[Ldub]

Funny you should bring this up, since I ordered these on Fri.





I haven't decided exactly where I'm going to mount them yet (they're huge), but they take a H-4 halogen bulb (hi & lo beam, same as stock VX bulb) & I'm planning to convert them over to HID since I have an extra set in inventory.

Also, check Little Laurie's gallery for pics, she has a nice looking light array on her roof basket.

[nfpgasmask]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the info. Etl, how did you hook up the lights once they were mounted? I would imagine you ran them in and hooked them to a switch in cab?

I don't know much about these lights or how to wire them. I would like to have something were I can take them on and off at will. The Summit ones look good and I can probably get them locally. If you could, snap another shot of you mounting rig for the Coleman basket. I might take it off your hands.

Bart

[Triathlete]

4 of these should brighten up the trail at night...

Light for HID...1.5 million candlepower each! 6 million candlepower turning night into the sun!

[nfpgasmask]

Yeah, I want these lights for camping in the back country and also for snake spotting on back country trails...

Those would be nice....but I still need to figure out how to turn them on and off, and how to make them removable for when I don't want them on my rack, or when I don't want my rack on at all....

Bart

[Triathlete]

Take a look at some of the desert race trucks. They have some real cool set ups that can be folded down...i'm sure it wouldn't be hard to make removable. You just need to incorpate a weather proof plug for the electrical. The desert truck set up allows you to remove all the lights as one unit.

[etlsport]

at the moment i just have wiring under the hood that i run up the windshield when i want to use the lights.. very crappy yea but i just havent worked up the cajones to take off the rail.. but yea a weatherproof plug is the idea once its there... yea the one i built for the coleman basket is made to be easily removable in theory... like i said just have to figure out the hardware for mounting, im pretty sure i have it figured out, i just dont have that basket on anymore so ive never bothered trying it

[nfpgasmask]

Cool, I was actually thinking of getting a piece of metal cut to the same size/shape of the faring and then just fabbing something up to attach the lights to that. So then I just need to have a wire going to my battery and with a relay attached that runs to a switch inside? Is that how it works? I really have no idea.

Thanks - Bart

at the moment i just have wiring under the hood that i run up the windshield when i want to use the lights.. very crappy yea but i just havent worked up the cajones to take off the rail.. but yea a weatherproof plug is the idea once its there... yea the one i built for the coleman basket is made to be easily removable in theory... like i said just have to figure out the hardware for mounting, im pretty sure i have it figured out, i just dont have that basket on anymore so ive never bothered trying it

[etlsport]

here is the wiring diagram i drew up for my lights.. the mount that i made i used an L shaped piece of aluminum with "wings" that sit on the outside of the basket then matched the edge to the curve of the basket in the corners

[nfpgasmask]

Sweet, thanks. But with your diagram here, you have to have the keys in and turned to run your lights, correct?

If I want my lights to come on via a switch when my keys are out, do I still need a relay?

Thnaks - Bart

[QUOTE=etlsport
here is the wiring diagram i drew up for my lights.. the mount that i made i used an L shaped piece of aluminum with "wings" that sit on the outside of the basket then matched the edge to the curve of the basket in the corners[/QUOTE]

[etlsport]

depends where the constant power from the dash comes from, i should have specified, i have the distribution block for my amps behind the dash, so basically its wired directly to the battery

the relay is there because most switches that you would want on your dashboard are not capable of handling 20-30 amps that your lights will require, so by using a relay, you will get more power out of your lights and not risk blowing up your switches, so you use the switch to give a small amount of power to the relay, which then allows the main power from the battery to flow to the lights

[nfpgasmask]

OK, I see. Thanks. I was thinking of getting a switch to replace the blank on in my center console. Or I could do one up on the dash. What do you guys suggest?

Thanks - Bart

depends where the constant power from the dash comes from, i should have specified, i have the distribution block for my amps behind the dash, so basically its wired directly to the battery

the relay is there because most switches that you would want on your dashboard are not capable of handling 20-30 amps that your lights will require, so by using a relay, you will get more power out of your lights and not risk blowing up your switches, so you use the switch to give a small amount of power to the relay, which then allows the main power from the battery to flow to the lights

[nfpgasmask]

By the way, would any of the below switches work in my VX dash or center console?

eBay

eBay2

eBay3

Thanks - Bart